


Private tutoring

by orphan_account



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Cute, Fluff, M/M, Thorin dies but who cares, sword lessons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-31
Updated: 2013-12-31
Packaged: 2018-01-06 22:42:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1112382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>King Bard and his children are visiting Erebor</p>
            </blockquote>





	Private tutoring

**Author's Note:**

> I am addicted to small ships  
> please send help

“The children are with his lordship on the training ground,” the guard told Bard, and the king immediately felt relieved. He had left his children with that small dwarf who looked like a ball of yarn when they had arrived in Erebor, because Tilda wanted to see the library. But when he’d been done with meeting everyone he’d come to meet, he’d tried to retrieve the kids, only to discover they were gone… which he should have expected, really.

He wondered which lordship the children were with. The title seemed to mean just about anyone, from the lowest of nobles to the dwarven king himself. Bard hoped that it might be king Fili this time… and it might be. The children loved him, and he sometimes taught Bain about swords and such things… It might be Fili with them on the training ground, and they might be able to talk a little, maybe _more_ than talk if they were lucky… It was usually easy to send Bain and the girls to see the prince’s brother and grab an hour or two of privacy.

It meant that Bain would come back knowing brand new insults, Tilda would be trying to climb everywhere for days, and Sigrid would have been flirting with dwarves (or with that ginger elf who sometimes came to see prince Kili)… but it would be worth it, for one hour with that golden king.

It must have been his lucky day, because it was Fili on the training ground, and facing him, a sword in hand, there was…

“Tilda!” Bard shouted, running toward his child. “What are you doing!”

“Mister Fili is teaching me!” the little girl explained with a proud smile. “He says I’m very good.”

“This is dangerous!” her father snapped, snatching the sword from her hands, before glaring at the king. “What are you doing? She’s a child!”

Fili frowned in confusion, and it wasn’t fair how handsome he looked sometimes… but Bard couldn’t afford to get distracted when he needed to be angry.

“You said I could teach Bain,” the dwarf stated. “You were glad that I was teaching him. How is this different?”

“She’s too young! And she’s a girl!”

The dwarf’s frown deepened. “What if she’s a girl? She’s a princess, she had to be able to defend herself.”

“I’m here to protect her,” Bard protested.

“Not always,” Sigrid said behind him. “Don’t be angry at him, father… I’m the one who asked that he teach us. You cannot always be here…”

“I…”

“Yeah, you weren’t there when the orcs came,” Tilda exclaimed, trying with little subtlety to get her sword back. “And we’d have been hurt if not for mister Fili and mister Oin and the elves. Mister Fili even got hurt, and there was _blood_ , you know.”

Bard’s eye went back to the dwarven king, who looked away in embarrassment, as if he didn’t like to be reminded that he’d been hurt. That he could have taken such a risk for Bard’s children, the most precious thing that he had…

“See, it’s so he don’t get hurt again,” Tilda said with a grin, having taken her sword back from her father. “And so we’re strong, and…” she turned to her sister, as if to ask silently for more arguments.

“As princesses, it helps us learn not to always depend on others,” Sigrid claimed, and Fili sniggered as if there was a shared joke. “It also means that you would be able to worry less about us and our security, and be able to focus more on things of greater importance.”

“I’ll always worry about you, about the three of you.”

 _The four of you_ , Bard didn’t dare to say, but Fili still smiled at him.

“She said worry less, not stop worrying,” the dwarf replied. “I will stop if you wish it… and I will make sure that they don’t find another teacher,” he added when Tilda opened her mouth to protest. “But I truly think it would be good for them. In dwarven culture, all noble children learn how to protect themselves, no matter their sex… I would do it for any child born of my blood.”

The urge to kiss the dwarf had been there since Bard had first seen him, and the man gave in at last. Bain made a bored noise, Sigrid sighed and Tilda applauded, but there father didn’t care. The idea that Fili was acting toward them as if they were his own children made him happier than he could have said.

“Keep teaching them,” Bard asked when they had to breathe again, “and I will be forever in your debt.”

The smirk Fili gave him then was nothing short of lewd. “Well, mister king, I’m sure I can think of one way or two to start repaying that debt…”

Bard laughed, and kissed him again.


End file.
